By Jill McLaughlin 
I came across a story recently that should put to rest any delusions about what the U.S. is doing for the people of Afghanistan. The article relates that the Swedish Committee for Afghanistan said that a U.S. Army division stormed its way through a hospital searching for insurgents late last Wednesday. In the process these troops kicked down doors, tied up security guards and visitors, and forced patients out of beds. Before leaving they demanded that the hospital report any wounded insurgents that came seeking care?
The Army admits that the hospital was searched. What is at question is whether this search violated Geneva Conventions that state that hospitals and their workers and patients be respected during combat operations. This question over whether this was a violation would be laughable if it were not for the fact that similar atrocities have been going on for eight years – “searches” and bombings by the U.S. military that have resulted in countless civilian deaths in Afghanistan.
This is the war Obama has said over and over again is the right war – the one America should have been fighting all along to bring democracy to the Afghan people,and most especially to liberate the women of Afghanistan from the oppressive theocratic rule of the Taliban. As we approach the anniversary of the invasion of Afghanistan I think it is worth looking at what this war and occupation is really about and what a true horror it is for the people of Afghanistan.
In October 2008, Larry Everest, writer for Revolution Newspaper, wrote a 3 part series called “A War for Empire: Not A Good War Gone Bad.” It had nothing to do with keeping us safe from terrorism, ridding the land of Taliban rule, or liberating the women of Afghanistan Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3. And to really understand what the U.S. military presence has meant for the women of Afghanistan I encourage you to read his other piece, “Isn’t the Taliban A Horror For Women? So Shouldn’t the U.S. Stay In Afghanistan?”
Friday will be eight years since that September day that many in this country say “changed everything.” Well, on the one hand, if look you look at it from the perspective of what is being legitimated and codified by escalating the war in Afghanistan it’s true. What did not change was the U.S. conquest for Empire, but what has changed is the lengths to which our government will go to get us to along with these imperial crimes. When we will look at the campaign and subsequent election of the first Black President, it came at a time when the empire needed a face lift to continue its crimes, lest the widely despised “Bush doctrine” compel people to really start screaming over things like torture and illegitimate wars/occupations.
If you consider the barely audible peep of the so-called leadership of the anti-war movement – most of whom abandoned their principles as they jumped on the Obama bandwagon – as these crimes are carried out daily in Afghanistan, the plan to quell unrest here is working. You can look at a commentary from the very conservative Andrew Sullivan, who was quite delighted and enamored with the Senator hailing from Illinois, for further emphasis of what I’m saying.
There have been rumblings of late from both the right and left about this “good war.” Maybe they think, it’s not so great. But they only talk about it from the point of view of what it’s going to cost “us Americans.” The truth is this: unless the people of this country, sickened by the crimes being perpetrated in the name of Empire on the people of the Middle East and the world, begin to take sustained and mass visible action to oppose these crimes, these wars/occupations will continue. An end to these crimes of our government will not arise spontaneously out of pundits grumbling about what cost it is to us to be in Afghanistan. Hook up with www.worldcantwait.org to find out how you can be apart of the mission to End U.S. Occupations and Torture for Empire Now!